She used the wall as support, trying to get as far away from the man’s howls. Another round of vomit escaped. Her throat burned and her sinuses were ablaze. She had to focus on her breathing as she forced herself to put one foot in front of the other, so that she didn’t collapse in a sobbing heap on the ground. She wouldn’t let Fonzatain or Requime see her like that.
“What now?” said Merafuentes, forcing out the words.
“Now we put on our vacuum suits and wait,” said Fonzatain.
Merafuentes looked at the other captain. It looked calm, blinking slowly, standing straight. The sacrificial method had been its plan all along. She didn’t think Fonzatain had any remorse about what had happened.
Merafuentes wasn’t sure if she could live with herself if they made it out alive.
Part Ten
Merafuentes stood on the bridge listening to her own breathing. Requime had printed a bare bones suit for her. It didn’t have a Heads Up Display or any defensive measures to protect against weapons. About all it could do was prevent her from dying in vacuum. As they had used almost all the printer material to make repairs it couldn’t be guaranteed that her suit could even do that. To keep her mind off of it she focused on the viewscreen in front of her.
The familiar lightening crackle emanated from a single spot. Next the dot of pure blackness, emptiness of light, of everything, that blotted out the stars and the space around it began to appear. Merafuentes couldn’t believe that at one time she had been naïve enough to look forward to going back through and returning to the Colonial Fleet.
“We should start heading towards it now,” said Merafuentes. Her suit translated for her and piped it to everyone on the general feed.
Fonzatain relayed the order. The blackness started to become larger in the viewscreen from a combination of getting closer and its expansion.
The first ship’s nose began to poke out of the blackness. Foot by foot the ship appeared as if it came through a solid wall. There was no silhouette behind it or structure that could be seen. It materialized whole like the blackness had given birth to it.
Ship after ship poured forth from the blackness as Fonzatain’s ship continued forward. Kaur’s fleet of ships milled about swerving and looping around in unclear, seemingly random patterns. Merafuentes held her breath, waiting to be noticed and attacked. Why they didn’t she wasn’t sure.
“Hit it,” she said. Her voice shook. She felt like she stood on the firing line and Kaur was the executioner, waiting to choose the next to die. Merafuentes wanted whatever was going to happen to happen.
The blackness loomed in front of them. A ship materialized. Fonzatain’s pilot adjusted course. The compensators didn’t work well enough, and Merafuentes felt her feet lift off the ground and her stomach move into her throat. The blackness filled the viewscreen, and she waited for the crash to the ground, but it didn’t come.
Merafuentes almost floated back down to the floor. The ship shuddered, and the viewscreen showed nothing but red and orange roiling waves. Lines of light flashed through it. There was no point of reference to judge the distance in front of them. The feeds from behind the ship still showed the blackness, continuing to expand.
“Where are they?” said Fonzatain.
“I don’t know,” said Merafuentes. “It wasn’t like this before it was…” she trailed off. It had all been feeling and interpretation. Nothing had been solid. With the shield she didn’t know how to reach out and find anything.
“I’m not picking anything up,” said the pilot. “We’re the only thing here.”
“The shields are taking a beating but holding,” said Requime. “Energy levels are spiking outside the ship.”
The ship shook and rattled. Everyone was pitched hard to their right. Everything electrical on the bridge flickered but stayed working.
“We had a direct hit from an energy blast,” said Requime. “I think something knows we’re here.”
Blue wisps passed in front of the cameras. They began to move around the ship. They moved like smoke, billowing and wafting around themselves, but every once and a while Merafuentes thought she saw them form into something. She pointed on the screen to one particular wisp that seemed to alter rather often and continued to move about the camera.
“Follow that one for a minute,” said Merafuentes. The camera operator consented.
Merafuentes leaned in closer to the viewscreen as if it would clear up the resolution, but she quickly jumped back at the first change. There was no mistaking what she saw; it was a face, and it opened its mouth and closed its eyes in a look of pain.
“The blue things are people,” said Merafuentes. “They’re humans.” She didn’t know how she knew, but she knew. It wasn’t a trick of the light or a hallucination. The urge to grab Fonzatain and shake it was almost overwhelming. “They’re people. We have to get them on board.”
“If we matched our shield’s energy signatures to theirs they might be able to get through,” said Requime.
“How do we make sure they aren’t going to attack us?” said Fonzatain.
Requime shrugged. Merafuentes said, “Just one. We try that one.” She pointed at the screen to the wisp that she’d been following.
Fonzatain nodded, and Requime went to work. The wisp bobbed around the camera then disappeared. Nothing seemed to happen.
“Captain,” said Spanos over the ship’s communication feed. “Something weird just happened.”
“What?” said Merafuentes.
“Another human appeared out of thin air. They just appeared and started thanking us,” said Spanos. Noises that sounded like someone weeping mixed with comforting words filtered in from the background.
“It worked,” said Merafuentes. She almost jumped in excitement. Her whole body tingled with elation. Fonzatain didn’t move or even look at Merafuentes.
“Where are our people?” said Fonzatain.
The ship shook. Something fell off the ceiling and hit Merafuentes in the shoulder. Without atmosphere she heard nothing, but everything vibrated and trembled. Through her visor she felt like she watched the surroundings on mute.
“We got another hit,” said Requime. “Shields are losing integrity.” Another shake. “There are two blasts hitting us now. They’re probing it looks like.”
More and more wisps floated around the ship. The feeds showed they prodded at the shields. Some came in with great speed and bounced off only to try again and again.
“They’re attracted to the shields,” said Merafuentes. She remembered the longing to leave the dimension because of the pain and torment. The ship must have been something like that to the wisps: a possible escape from their suffering.
Merafuentes looked to Fonzatain. “We’ve got to match their signatures,” she said.
Fonzatain didn’t say anything. It continued to look straight at the viewscreen. The ship’s shuddering continued unabated. Some of those on the bridge who were sitting shrugged on harnesses and strapped themselves into their seats.
“The blasts are continuous now,” said Requime. “I don’t know what’s out there, but it’s enveloped us.” It looked back to Fonzatain. “We can’t stay much longer.”
Merafuentes knew what it was: Kaur’s benefactor. She could almost feel it through the ship.
“I’m not leaving my people behind,” said Fonzatain. It gripped the edge of the console in front of it.
“If we don’t turn back now we’re staying,” said Requime.
“Portal’s starting to close,” said the pilot.
“Match the signatures,” said Merafuentes.
The ship convulsed. Lights on consoles flickered off and screens cracked. Some of the crew pushed back from their workstations because their machines weren’t working.
Everyone looked at Fonzatain who continued to stare at the viewscreen.
“Captain-” said Requime.
Fonzatain gave a loud sigh and lowered its head, looking at the ground. “Match signatures and get us out o
f here,” it said.
Merafuentes felt the subtle shift of the ship as the thrusters fired. Her heart skipped a beat as the craft rocked. They lost all external video feeds.
“Faster,” she whispered. Her concern for her own safety outweighed that of the wisps. If they could get on board they would. She couldn’t let herself get caught by Kaur. “Faster,” she whispered again not caring if the pilot heard her or not.
“More humans on board,” said Spanos. “They’re appearing by the tens. Space is filling up fast.” Crying filled the background. “We’re well over a hundred people in here.”
“Almost to the portal,” said the pilot.
The shaking got to the point where Merafuentes’ teeth chattered. The room bucked and more than once Merafuentes lost her balance only to catch herself on something to prevent a complete fall. Everyone except Fonzatain and herself had strapped themselves into a harness.
“Ship’s shaking itself apart,” said Requime. “Thirty percent of ship exposed to vacuum. No casualties. Shields weak but holding.”
“Faster,” said Merafuentes. She fell to the floor and smashed her face against her visor.
“Entering portal,” said the pilot.
“Fifty percent of ship exposed to vacuum,” said Requime. “Engines failing. Shields failing. Limiting life support to absolute minimum standards. Redirecting to shields.”
Merafuentes felt herself lift off the deck again as the ship dropped out from under her. She screamed as she tried to grab something, anything to hold onto. Her frantic grasping didn’t provide results.
She slammed to the ground and lost her breath. Blood filled her mouth. She’d bitten her tongue. Pain exploded in her face. More blood dripped from her nose onto the visor, obscuring her vision. She gasped and clutched at her chest, willing herself to breath.
“We’re out,” said the pilot. “Portal closed.”
Merafuentes rolled to her side. Fonzatain lay on its back not moving.
“No signs of enemy ships,” said the pilot.
The cold from the floor seeped through her suit and into Merafuentes as she crawled over to Fonzatain. No one else seemed to notice the two of them on the ground.
“Sixty three percent of ship exposed to vacuum,” said Requime. “Shields failed. Powered off.”
“Can we jump?” said Fonzatain. Its words were spaced out like it had trouble forming them.
“No,” said Requime. “Outside safe parameters.”
“Jump,” said Fonzatain.
“We most likely won’t make it if we do,” said Requime.
“I don’t care,” said Fonzatain. “I’m not staying here. Jump.”
With a ship full of rescued humans Merafuentes didn’t want to play fast and loose with their equipment. She didn’t have time to interject her concerns.
They jumped.
Part Eleven
Merafuentes looked up at the snowcapped mountains that towered over the settlement. Tendrils of yellow, red and orange snaked up the mountains and almost touched the snow. The sound of water running in the nearby river couldn’t drown out the sound of people talking in the town square down the hill from them. Even the bite of a cold, cutting wind couldn’t take away from the cloudless, cobalt sky.
“I don’t know how to thank you,” said Merafuentes.
Fonzatain nodded. “You don’t have to. You weren’t going to be able to return to your system. Kaur would have found you there eventually.”
Merafuentes sighed. With the destruction of the Sol System and Earth they couldn’t return. Fonzatain had told her the system was controlled by another, less than friendly government: the Vantagax Republic.
“I’m sorry we weren’t able to save your crew,” said Merafuentes. She reached up and put a hand on Fonzatain’s arm. She’d apologized for months with Fonzatain never accepting it but didn’t know if it was because she had nothing to apologize for or if Fonzatain was angry at the loss of its crew. Some of the humans who had been saved said the aliens were slaughtered almost immediately as a show of force. Kaur’s benefactor had demanded it.
“We knew we might not come back. I can live with myself knowing that I tried,” it said.
They didn’t say anything for a few minutes. Merafuentes liked the silence between the two of them. It let her listen to the people talking and think about their future. They had struck out from Earth hoping to colonize and give humans a foothold somewhere outside the solar system. This wasn’t what anyone had in mind, but, in a manner, they still succeeded.
“How are you going to explain this to your superiors?” said Merafuentes.
Fonzatain puffed out its cheeks then deflated them. “Attacked by unknown assailants. Had to dump everything that wasn’t necessary. System is too dangerous to colonize,” it said.
“There’s a lot of your crew that need to stay quiet,” said Merafuentes. She remembered how the crew of Fonzatain’s colonial supply ship had gawked at them as they offloaded all of the supplies one hundred and twenty-three humans needed to found a wildcat colony and survive. “How are you going to falsify the logbook? You weren’t even supposed to come here.”
“Don’t worry,” said Fonzatain.
She didn’t want to, but she needed to. While it was true they were on an unclaimed planet, no one knew they were here. What would happen if they were found? Fonzatain had agreed that neither it nor its crew would let anyone know the humans had settled. Merafuentes didn’t know if Fonzatain could keep that promise, but she trusted it because it had trusted her.
“I think I can wipe this planet from our records,” said Fonzatain. “I have a sibling that works at the Information Ministry. This is a relatively minor system and a far off planet. There are more desirable worlds to colonize.” Fonzatain made a sound with its mouth that Merafuentes didn’t understand, but thought it might have been like a poof to its people. “Remove its location just like that. Besides, wildcat colonies aren’t permitted.”
“Just like that,” said Merafuentes. She repeated it like in a daze; that it was so easy. She didn’t know if Fonzatain had the kind of connections and power it spoke about, but it didn’t really matter at this point.
They had the prefab buildings up. The fusion generators were powered. Crops would be planted during the next growing season. The winter would help them get used to the difference in lengths of day, and week and months from Earth. Over time they would get used to the extended year.
Merafuentes didn’t know if others would escape from Kaur, but she did know that they were on this planet now. They were settled. They were colonized.
And at this time that was enough for her.
Author’s Note
Whether you loved it, hated it or just felt so-so about The Terran Escape I ask that you leave a rating on Amazon and Goodreads. I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you!
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About the Author
Angus Monarch lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife and overly friendly dog. When he’s not writing he’s working underneath fluorescent lights wishing he was writing. The Terran Escape is a prequel novelette to The Terran Representative and The Terran Shepherd. It is the third work in The Terran Series.
The Terran Escape Page 4
